


A Helping Hand?

by hopefulfridays



Category: Poldark (TV 2015)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:07:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23458324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopefulfridays/pseuds/hopefulfridays
Summary: Dwight returns home to find a problem in his study.
Relationships: Dwight Enys/Caroline Penvenen
Comments: 11
Kudos: 28





	A Helping Hand?

**Author's Note:**

> This is total Enys fluff. Short and hopefully sweet. Although there is mention of body parts in a medical sense...and a shoutout to the hugely talented dismiss_your_fearsx for providing the headcanon from The Enys Chronicles for Sophie and Meliora

Dwight Enys had hardly dismounted his horse in the stables at Killewarren when his two daughters flew at him, both speaking at an alarming speed, but managing to communicate that there was something wrong in the house.

"Slow down, my loves" he told them as he knelt down to hug them. "Now, Sophie, whatever is the matter?"

"Mama is in your study Papa. She says she could restrain herself no longer. The smell..."

And Sophie bent double and coughed dramatically to demonstrate, before standing up and clutching her throat for effect, just in case Dwight hadn't received the message.

"Ah, I see" Dwight said, a little guiltily, though he had to smile at Sophie's act. There was more than a little of her mother's flair for the dramatic running in her veins.

Surely he had placed the hand in it's jar before he left this morning? He hadn't actually told Caroline that he had acquired it from the infirmary the day before. She could be nervy about his having random body parts in the house.

Meliora took his hand, and led him inside. "I told Mama that you wouldn't be pleased."

"And what did she say, Meliora?" 

"She didn't say anything Papa. She just had that look. I told her that anything you were doing would be vitally important,..."

"Vitally?" asked Dwight, impressed with his eight year old's vocabulary.

"Yes, it's one of my new words, and Miss Richards says I must use it and learn how to spell it, and she will test me on Friday" Meliora paused in thought and continued 

"Mama told me that for you, she would expect nothing less than a fierce defence from me. What does that mean, Papa?"

Meliora was perplexed. 

Dwight less so. He could do no wrong in Meliora's eyes and Caroline constantly teased him about the fact. Sophie, on the other hand was just as likely to echo her mother's point of view, which was no surprise as so much about her was pure Caroline.

They had reached his study, and by now both daughters were hanging off Dwight, which helped to fortify him for the battle ahead. His small army about to meet a formidable force. In this case, his wife.

He managed to open the door, his daughters notwithstanding, and was greeted by the sight of Caroline sitting at his desk, where the offending hand was sitting dramatically in the middle of a tin plate, uncovered, and attracting flies - it was high summer, so not altogether surprising. Dwight had left it out after all. He had been studying it when a message came begging his urgent assistance with a difficult birthing. In his hurry, he must have forgotten to replace it in its jar of preserving solution.

A large piece of cloth covered Caroline's mouth and nose. For that Dwight really couldn't blame her. Dear God, the smell was dreadful.

Caroline briefly lowered the cloth and said in a light and pleasant tone - although if you knew her as Dwight did, you would recognize a dangerous undercurrent - "Ah, Dr Enys. You have your most loyal and enthusiastic band of supporters with you I see."

Not for long though. The girls could not endure the smell, or the look of it, and ran squealing upstairs, leaving their beloved Papa to face his fate alone.

"Would you care to tell me how long this has been sitting here? Poor Rosemary came in here to dust and took quite a turn. I thought I would have to send for you to tend on her. She rallied, but ever since the maids have refused to come anywhere near this room, and I cannot blame them" Caroline tried her best to sound severe.

Dwight was instantly contrite, but knew he needed a solid defence. "I will apologize to Rosemary the minute I see her. But only since this morning, my love. I retrieved it from the infirmary yesterday. Some days ago, a poor man had a terrible accident as he was unloading cargo at the dock. A number of barrels fell from a height, and the weight of the impact killed him and severed the hand from his arm"

"As sorry as I am for the unfortunate man, I would hate to think you had retrieved it from him for the sake of your curiosity while he were alive and it was still firmly attached" Caroline stated flatly.

'Distract her, Enys, distract her' he thought.

"My love, it's actually very interesting. If you look closely, you will see how intricate the system of veins and ligaments, muscles and tendons is. I will grant you, it is starting to decompose, but truly the human body is a miracle..."

Caroline looked at Dwight as if he had taken leave of his senses, and interrupted him.

"If I look closely Dwight, I will likely faint, from the smell alone. Perhaps we could leave the fascinating medical lecture for after you store it in its jar.."

"If you faint my love, rest assured I will catch you." Dwight answered gallantly.

"But I think I shall have to discard it now" Dwight continued in disappointment. "It will have degraded to such a degree that I think it will be useless for further study" He sighed and frowned, cross with himself for wasting such a precious resource. 

Caroline's mouth twitched behind her cloth. This earnest, cerebral side of Dwight she found extremely attractive. She had not really been cross with him, although she obviously would prefer he did not make a habit of leaving body parts throughout the house.

She could not resist teasing him.

Her mouth twitched some more, and she could not conceal a laugh.

"You're not cross at all!" he accused, and immediately crossed the room to Caroline. He took her in his arms, smell or no smell, and kissed her repeatedly. 

"How many years have we been married? And still you manage to bamboozle me with your teasing. I adore you, Mrs Enys, and you must promise me that you will never, ever, change your ways"

Caroline laughed. "I must admit I find the oh so serious Dr Enys highly desirable myself, especially that brain of yours voraciously searching for new medical insight"

Dwight nuzzled her hair and kissed her again, "Hmm, it's not only my brain that's voracious my love" he said huskily.

"I am aware of that too" Caroline whispered in his ear. "But for the love of all that's holy, will you please remove that hand from our house. It will give me nightmares and as the girls have seen it, we will most likely be receiving a knock on our door at midnight, claiming bad dreams. So any voraciousness will have to wait."

Dwight leapt into action and placed the hand in a jar with it's preserving solution and then locked it in a cabinet, promising to dispose of it at the infirmary the following day.

"Does that satisfy you, madame?" he asked. 

"For now" Caroline replied, smiling. "You may finish satisfying me later this evening, should an opportunity present itself"

"I will most happily oblige" laughed Dwight.

The door opened and two faces appeared, with Horace in tow. 

"Mama, we found Horace. He was outside in the garden, probably trying to get away from the smell" Sophie said. "Although the smell is much better now" she finished brightly

"That's because Papa fixed it. Just like his patients" Meliora explained.

"I think Horace is hungry. Let's ask Mrs Bridge for some jellies for him. Or perhaps some marzipan. Come on Mel" Sophie said and she and Meliora went off to the kitchen, happily trailed by Horace.

"God forbid Horace is ever forced to eat food meant for a dog" remarked Dwight. 

"Horace must be the oldest pug in the country, so he may eat whatever he wishes. He deserves a life of luxury, given his age" Caroline responded, smiling.

"Well Horace will surely be astounded by the change in his living conditions then, because he has never known luxury before, has he Caroline?" Dwight gently teased her.

"Now look here Dr Enys" Caroline said as she grasped the lapels of his coat and kissed him. "If it were not for Horace, we may never have met. He is the king of dogs"

"True. He certainly is treated as if he were the king of dogs...."

And so they continued as they sat down for supper. Horace took up his usual position under the table, where he was always the recipient of little morsels of food, given him by three pairs of hands. It was a ritual that had begun surreptitiously but was now blatant. Dwight never raised an eyebrow. Some battles weren't worth fighting. They were well and truly lost before they were begun. 

Killewarren was a happy house these days. Just as it was meant to be.


End file.
